1 THE RELIGION OF THE SIKHS. 123
2 visions for the innumerable offences to which
3 frail humanity is liable. The assumption of
4 irresponsible power by Hunjeet Singh destroyed,
5 in some degree, the potency of the Khalsa, but
6 as it still regulates the admission of converts the
7 following sketch of the conditions of conversion,
8 as given by Sir John Malcolm, remains in full
9 force to the present moment : —
10 " The Sikh converts continue, after they have
11 quitted their original religion, all those civil
12 usages and customs of the tribes to which they
13 belonged, that they can practise without infring-
14 ing the tenets of NANAC, or the institution
15 of GUHU GOVIND. They are most par-
16 ticular with regard to their intermarriages ; and
17 on this point Sikhs descended from Hindoos almost
18 invariably conform to Hindoo customs, every tribe
19 intermarrying within itself. The Hindoo usage
20 regarding diet is also held equally sacred; no
21 Sikh descended from a Hindoo family ever
22 violating it, except upon particular occasions,
23 such as a G6r6-mat&, when they are obliged,
24 by their tenets and institutions, to eat promis-
25 cuously. The strict observance of these usages
26 has enabled many of the Sikhs, particularly of
27 the Jat and Gttjar tribes, which include almost
28 all those settled to the south of the Sutlege, to
29 preserve an intimate intercourse with their ori-
30 ginal tribes, who, considering the Sihhi not as
31 o 2